Don't Be Afraid to Kiss Me
by TheGoldenGirlintheSilverCrown
Summary: After Draco Malfoy's eight year old son runs away from his fathers date, he is found by most unlikely witch. Hermione Granger. But when Scorpius goes missing they both have to work together to find him. Post-Hogwarts. DMxHG, BZxLL, RWxKB and GWxHP
1. Storm

They say on the night of the _Purple Moon_ that if you wish hard enough and your heart is pure enough it will grant you wish. Whatever it may be, whatever it may mean, if your heart is pure and true and you wish it enough it will come true.

Hermione had always been a stickler when it came to myths and legends, because even though she was a true believer in fact, it didn't mean she didn't like fiction. She had read many a book where people claimed to have soul mates and that their Fate had captured them. That they were forced to follow what was placed out for them. Well, as they say. Fate is a bitch. But Hermione didn't believe any of this shit. She believed that your life was made by the choices you made and that you fell in love with someone who was well suited to you.

But even Fate controlled who believed in her or not. But in the end, they all ended up believing. And it just turned out that Fate had a plan for Hermione Jean Granger that would make sure she would never doubt again.

Hermione had wished on that Purple Moon that she would fall in love, and he would love her back. Unconditional and unadulterated love.

But as you know, Fate is a bitch.

* * *

The rain was thundering from the sky and battering the windows with a gale force wind. Hermione loved this weather, watching the lightning light up the sky and listening to the thunder clap. She loved the sound of the rain beating against the windows and the way she would see strangers in the street below running to get into their house and home safe to their loved ones.

This storm was brutal and Hermione was stood by an open window, her hair whipping around her head from the wind her clothes sticking tight to her skin with water. She always stood watch during the most powerful part of the storm, just in case someone was left down on the street, defenceless and needed a place to stay.

It just so happened that in that one particular storm Hermione Granger saw a little child, curled up in a tight ball. Just lying in the middle of the road, their hands pressed over their ears and he was screaming. Screaming so loudly just so that they couldn't hear the thunder.

She ran down the three flights of stairs and sprinted out into the middle of the storm. The child was still screaming, but Hermione could now see that it was a boy, his silvery blond hair plastered to his head. His eyes were shut tight against the wind.

"Get out of the road!" Hermione screamed as loud as she possibly could. But the boy just didn't hear her, with the combination of his hands over his ears, the howling of the wind and the fact that the wind was snatching away every syllable that Hermione said it wasn't likely that he would every hear her.

She ran over to the boy and shook his shoulders; he pulled his eyes open with shear force and looked at the soaking woman in front of him.

She was drenched to the bone; every item of clothing was plastered to her body and her dark brown hair was stuck to her neck.

"Let me help you!" Hermione screamed again, but the boy could only catch a couple of words. He nodded slowly and let Hermione pick him and she quickly ran inside with him.

She pushed her front door open with her shoulder and made sure that it was shut properly before placing the boy down on the sofa and pulling the window to a close.

"Thank you," the boy said quietly, "I have never been in anything like that before,"

"Yeah well, you were lucky I was by my window," Hermione said, thinking about how lucky it really was that she had helped him. He could have been struck by lightning or one the surrounding trees could have blown over and crushed him or maybe he would have just got hypothermia. You never know with storms. "Do want a hot chocolate?" she asked.

"Yes, please," the little boy looked at Hermione with sudden happiness in his eyes, as though the thought of a hot chocolate had just changed his life.

"Mini Marshmallows?" she asked, whilst setting the kettle to boil and putting to chocolate powder into two mugs.

"You like Marshmallows on hot chocolate too!?" he looked surprised.

"Yes, of course! It's the best way to have it!" She exclaimed, and picked the kettle up once it had boiled. Pouring the water into the mugs, watching the steam rise slowly from the rims. Curling into beautiful shapes as they became transparent the further they travelled.

"My daddy doesn't like Marshmallows," he commented as Hermione passed him a mug filled to the brim with creamy chocolate with melting pink and white Marshmallows sprinkled on top.

"Your daddy doesn't know what he's missing," she giggled, "I'm going to see if I have anything you can change into while I dry your clothes,"

"Why don't you just use magic?" the boy looked at her questioningly.

Hermione froze, she hadn't used magic in his presence had she? How did he know what she was? "What?" she said, trying to sound surprised and failing miserably.

"I know who you are. Everybody does. You're Hermione Granger, the famous mudblood. You're the one who helped defeat Voldemort,"

"Don't you dare say that word in my house," she snapped at the boy. His happy face falling quickly and tears formed in his eyes.

"Say what?" he looked truly innocent, like young children do when they say a swear word and doesn't know it's bad.

"Mudblood," she spat out between clenched teeth. Where the hell had the boy learnt that word? And why of all times did he choose to say it now? "It's a disgusting word that should never be used. It's completely Bloodist,"

"I'm sorry," he began to cry, "I didn't know it was bad. I read it somewhere; I didn't know what it meant."

"If you don't know what a word means then don't say it," she snapped again. The boy cried more. Tears were thickly rolling down his face. She felt a twinge of guilt in her gut and quickly whispered, "Sorry. I'm sorry I just haven't been called that in a long time. I forgot how much it hurts," She pulled her wand from her pocket and said an incantation, the boys clothes dried out and warmed him up in a matter of seconds, she then did the same to herself.

The boy looked out of the window and saw that the storm was still raving madly, "My daddy is a Wizard, that's how I know about you," he said to the famous witch stood a few meters away from him.

"Right." Not really knowing how to respond so she made a quick decision and said it to the boy before she could change her mixed up mind, "You have to stay here tonight, I am not letting you out in that again. You'll get swept away by the wind," Hermione said firmly.

"Okay," the boy said.

"By the way, how old are you and what is your name?" she asked realising that she still hadn't asked the small boy either of the questions.

"Oh, I'm eight and my name is Scorpius. Scorpius Draco Malfoy,"

* * *

He had been running about in the god damn storm for almost an hour now. His feet were killing him and his clothes were proving more annoying then useful, restricting his movement by sticking to his skin.

He had been taking his son to meet this girl he had been seeing. She was a bit thick, but nice enough and she gave great shags. He figured he may as well introduce her to Scorpius so she could decide early on if she liked him.

Well it would have been okay if he had mentioned to her beforehand that he had a son, but he must have forgotten to mention it. Oh well, probably just saved a month's worth of pain for the both of them. Except she didn't have to scream and run away as though Scorpius was some sort of monster which caused Scorpius to run away and leaving him looking rather lost in the middle of the restaurant.

_Damn that girl, _he thought to himself. Scorpius had been left by his mum, _and my wife _he added, when he was three and he had some issues. They both did. And that girl did not help.

"You look lost," a voice said behind him. Draco whirled round to see a slight pale skinned girl with beautiful long blonde curls down her back stood in a doorway on the street he was currently searching.

"Luna? Luna Lovegood?" Draco asked, not having seen anyone from his school years except his old friend Blaise Zabini, almost a decade.

"You look like the nargles have got to you. I think you better come inside," she kicked the door open with her muggle boots, purple Dr Martins.

"I can't! My son-" he started, but only to be cut off by the blonde witch.

"He's fine, believe me. You'll find him alive and well tomorrow. Now come in," she stared at him determination in eyes.

"Fine," and he followed Luna through the front door into a hallway with purple walls painted with lots of different faces all joined together with a long thick brown line. _A family tree? No, a friend's tree. _He recognised lots of the faces on the branches, there was the idiot Longbottom and there was Granger and the Weasel and Potter. There were so many faces along both of the hallway walls all the branches coming from the trunk painted on the front door, even faces he didn't reconise.

Luna had been following his eyes and said, "I never thought I would have so many friends," before skipping away from him into a doorway on the left.

He followed her quickly into what must have been the living room. Only to be confronted by Lovegood curled up on the sofa with a dark skinned man who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders.

"Blaise?" he walked into the room and stared at his best friend and the blonde, "Since when do you date people who belong in a loony bin?" he asked harshly. Not believing what he saw in front of his eyes.

"Since two years ago," he looked at Draco, "Why else would I turn down every person you tried to set me up with? And don't say that about her. She isn't loony, she's perfect," he kissed the girls cheeks.

"I assumed you were gay," Draco said back weakly. Watching to the couple who looked like they had been in love their whole life, looking so comfortable with each other.

Luna laughed out loud, "I can assure you he's not gay,"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Draco asked, "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"I didn't know how you would take it mate. I didn't know if you would let your past go enough to accept someone as pure as her and as her side,"

"I already let the past go. I have nothing I had back then that I have now. My mum is dead, my dad is dead and my wife ran away, I have to work full time to have enough money to make sure me and Scorpy have enough to live on so I have to actually take him to a muggle school and make him stay there until I can pick him up. I had to let go of the past pretty quickly don't you think?" he didn't realise that he was shouting until he had finished. His life had fallen apart when Astoria had left him and that was five years ago, "Sorry. I would have been fine; I just wished you'd told me. Welcome to the dark side Luna," he stuck out a hand and Luna shook it.

"I should really being welcome to the light side Draco. You got it the wrong way round. You're one of us now," she smiled at him and pulled him into a hug, which completely shocked Draco, "I'm glad you're okay with this. I love him too much to let him go," she whispered into his ear, "Don't make me loose him,"

Blaise smiled at the blonde and dragged her back to sit with him, "So Scorpius has gone missing then?" he asked.

Draco let out an exasperated sigh, "Yeah, he runs away every time a girl doesn't like him. And Fate being the bitch she is makes sure that every girl I actually try and date, hates children," he sat down in the arm chair across from the unlikely couple.

"Hermione likes children," Luna said, more to herself then to either of the pureblood Slytherin boys in the room.

"What?" Malfoy spluttered out, coughing on his own spittle, "You are not going to try and set me up with Granger are you?"

"Me? No, of course not. I promised Hermione I wouldn't set her up with anyone of my friends ever again after the guy who threw up on her. Shame really they would have been perfect for each other," he voice got quieter, talking to herself again.

"Luna, love. You're doing it again," Blaise said.

"Sorry," she smiled, her voice got louder to a more audible volume, "I won't but Fate might,"

Malfoy looked at Blaise, "I told you Fate's a bitch,"

"No, more Scorpius actually likes her," Luna said.

"How the hell can he like her? He's never even met her," Draco asked Luna, knowing this girl never really made sense and probably whatever she said was made up.

"Ask him tomorrow," shrugged, "I'm going to bed. You coming?" she looked at Blaise who stood up.

"Yes, you'll have to kip on the couch mate, the spare room doesn't have a bed,"

"Thanks, but I have a house,"

Blaise looked at him, "No just stay here tonight. You'll be fine," he flicked the switch by the door and all the lights in the room went out, "Night,"

Draco lay back on the sofa, pulling the blanket draped over the back of it over his body after quickly remembering that he was still wet from the rain and performed a quick drying spell. His mind was a bit preoccupied with his friend's odd choice in women to be thinking straight before.

He lay on his back staring at the ceiling, which was painted lime green, and smiled faintly. He was glad Blaise was happy; most of his past school friends were dead, including his ex girlfriend Pansy. But he fell asleep quickly; even his worried thoughts for Scorpius couldn't drag him away from the prospect and a good sleep.


	2. Bacon

**I was so ecstatic to find that 7 people followed my Fanfiction and 4 have favourite it on the first day of its release! I have never had that sort of feedback from one before and I'm so so so so so HAPPY! Thank you so much guys! I love you all! Please can you read and review! It makes me feel needed. **

**XOXO TheGoldenGirlintheSilverCrown**

**Chapter 2 – **

"Malfoy? As in Draco Malfoy's son?" Hermione said in shock. That would at least explain the use of the word 'Mudblood'. She had no idea that Malfoy had ever been in love, or even had a girlfriend since the stuck up bitch Pansy Parkinson he had dated in his fifth year, and to have had a child when he was eighteen? He must have been so brave, "Who's your mother?"

The boy winced slightly on the word mother, "Astoria Greengrass, she ran away with someone who isn't my dad when I was three. I don't really remember her," the boy cupped both of his hands around his not empty mud of hot chocolate, despite it being empty it was still warm to the touch and the heat on his palms and tips of him fingers was relaxing.

"I'm sorry," Hermione said seating herself next to the mournful looking boy, "I never even knew he had gotten married," which was true, but she couldn't denied that even if she had known that Malfoy had been married and had a son, she wouldn't have cared one bit. He had been awful to her when they were children and the only fond memories she had of him were punching him in the face in their Third year and the sight of him as a white ferret in her Fourth year. Still no one deserved to have someone leave them and their son.

"Yeah well, a lot has happened since then. I don't really miss her. I can't remember her really," he shrugged his shoulders, "Can we talk about this later? I really want to go to sleep,"

"Of course," Hermione smiled at him, noticing that the boy did look very tired, with bags under his eyes and his eyelids drooping heavily, "I'll show you upstairs,"

Scorpius followed Hermione out into the hallway and up onto the landing, Hermione pushed open a door, "In there is the bathroom," she moved to another door, "That's my room, just knock and wait if you want anything, and that one," she said and finally pointing to another door, "Is your room for the night. There are fresh towels in there and some clean pyjamas that should fit you. When you've changed just leave your clothes outside of your door and I'll wash them for you. I hope you sleep well. Good night," and with that she quickly disappeared into her room.

* * *

Draco woke to a stiff crick in his neck and smell of cooking bacon. He tried to recall the last time he had woken to the smell of bacon but he just couldn't remember, he always woke up early. Practically inhaled a bowl of cornflakes and then dragged Scorpius to school and then left for work, except on Sundays when he got the day off and just lay in bed catching up on his sleep. Being an Auror was hard work and he spent most of his days tracking down rouge Death Eaters who were still trying to keep up old ways. His whole life had led up to the one war and he had seen enough violence in his lifetime to never ever want to see so many people killed again. She he tracked them, caught them and threw them in Azkaban. Easy Peezy, Lemon Squeezy.

He dragged himself off the sofa, thanking God it was a school half term for Scorpius and that he himself had been granted the week off as well, before walking into Lovegoods kitchen where he was confronted to the sight of Blaise making bacon and eggs.

"I didn't know you could cook Blaise," Draco said sarcastically, approaching his friend who looked lost and confused and was currently trying to flip the eggs by jerking the frying pan in an upwards motion.

"I wouldn't call it cooking really,"

"No I wouldn't either," he remarked dryly, "Stop it Blaise, you're going to kill someone, let me do it," he took the frying pan off Blaise and put it on the hob, and then bent down to open the oven/grill to check the bacon, "Where's Luna?"

"At work," Blaise said thickly through a piece of brown bread he had just shoved into his mouth.

"So you were making bacon and eggs for yourself?" Draco quickly plated up the eggs and pulled the bacon from the oven/grill and put it next to the eggs, "There you go,"

"No, I was making them for Luna, well more for future Luna," Blaise tripped over his words.

"Why?" Draco knew the Blaise only got like this when he was nervous or worried.

"Well I'm going to propose to Luna, with muggle made breakfast in bed,"

Draco looked at his friend, who he hadn't even known was in love yesterday morning, and just felt happy for him and he hadn't felt happy in a long time, "Good luck then," he pulled Blaise into a hug and slapped him on the back, "Good luck!"

"Thanks, I still need to know how to cook it though," he looked at the floor, "I never knew muggle had it so hard,"

Draco laughed, "Come over on Sunday, I'll teach you. Okay?"

"Yes! Thank you!" he went in for another hug, but Draco stopped him.

"Don't you think we've acted enough like girls already? Anyway, I need to go find Scorpius, want to help?"

"Yeah sure, I've got people to cover me at work so that's fine," he grabbed his coat and flung it on, "Where are we going first?"

"Home," he took Blaise's arm and apperated to the Malfoy Manor.

* * *

Hermione woke up quite early that morning, around seven, she didn't need to go to work until twelve so she was fine to stay in abed a while. But still... the Malfoy kid was in her spare room.

She exited her room and got into the shower, making sure the clothes she could change into were in the bathroom with her.

As soon as she stepped out of the hot blast of water goose bumps spread like wildfire along her arms and legs and across her stomach, she shivered and waved her wand saying a spell to rid her body and hair of excess water.

She dressed quickly and went to knock on the boy's door, "Scorpius I need to get to work soon," she lied, "So you need to get up and get breakfast so I can take you home," she heard no reply from the room and carefully pushed the door open, "Scorpius?"

The room was empty, "Shit!" she swore and dashed down stairs and into the kitchen, "Oh thank Merlin!" she breathed when she saw the blonde hair boy sat at her breakfast bar munching on a sandwich reading an article about Family Life in the Daily Prophet.

"Hey, you're a really good writer," Scorpius commented, pointing at the article, "Also, I was hungry so I made myself a sandwich. Is that okay?"

"That's fine," Hermione smiled, "That's just fine," she let out a long breath thanking Merlin over and over in her head that the boy hadn't run off again in the night.

The boy looked at her, as though he was waiting for her to say something else.

"I need to take you home now, what does your dad usually say when he apperates home?" The boy shrugged, "Fine, take my arm," he took her arm, and she began to picture the main room in Malfoy Manor, its dark walls and tiled floors, the magnificent fireplace blazing with fire and the spot on the floor where Bellatrix had tortured her, "Malfoy Manor," she spoke out loud hoping it would help her arrive at her destination. She turned on the spot and apperated.

They both appeared in the main living room of Malfoy Manor and it was exactly how Hermione had remembered it. The dark green wall paper drew out almost all of the light from the room, and the floor had black and grey tiles. The fire place was empty at the moment as Malfoy must have put it out before he left.

"My dad hasn't been back," Scorpius said, running his hand along the white marble mantelpiece over the fireplace. He looked around the room, taking in the black leather sofas and armchairs, the large bookshelves creaking with the weight of its many volumes, but when his eyes stopped on Hermione he saw that the woman was crying. Thick salty teardrops sliding down her face quickly paling face.

"I'm sorry, but I can't be here. I just can't," she half sobbed, half whispered out, "I'm sorry," with the last apology she apperated away from the Manor, hoping that she would never have to go there again.

* * *

Blaise and Draco were walking towards Malfoy Manor, knowing that Scorpius would have had to walk home since he didn't own a wand yet, when Malfoy Manor key began to vibrate in his pocket. He pulled it out quickly turning to Blaise, "Someone has apperated into my Manor,"

Blaise dragged Draco in an alleyway gripped his arm tight and turned on the spot. The two of them landing just in front of the fireplace. Draco whirled round and scanned the room, but the only person he saw was his son.

He bounded over and pulled him into a hug, "Don't ever run away again you daft boy," he kissed Scorpius on the head and then held him at harms length, and "Who brought you here?" he asked

"Hermione Granger. She left as soon as she arrived, she was crying,"

"Granger?" Blaise asked, "How did Luna know?"

"I have no idea, Scorpius, go to bed and get some sleep. You must be shattered," he turned his son around by his shoulders and began to guide him towards the door.

"Dad, get off me. I'm fine, she found me last night and let me stay in her spare room. She even washed my clothes so I could wear them again today," he smiled at his dad, "She was really nice to me,"

"Just go to your room Scorpius. I need to talk to Blaise," he said, but when the boy made no effort to move he shouted, "NOW!"

As soon as Scorpius entered the room Draco called his last remaining house elf. He had freed them all after the war but only two had remained with him that. One had died a few months back so now his only one was Beete, a female elf with eyes and ears that would put Dobby's to shame.

"Beete, can you make sure the Scorpius stays away from this room? He doesn't need to hear what is being said,"

"Yes Mr Malfoy," Beete squeaked out before clicking her fingers and disappearing.

"Draco what is this about?" Blaise asked after she had gone.

"Hermione cried when she came here," Draco stated.

"So?"

"She was tortured here Blaise!" Draco yelled, his anger clear and obvious on his face, "She came here to take my son back home and she remembered that she had been tortured. I don't want my son living somewhere that people have been tortured in,"

"I thought you didn't like her though. I thought you didn't care about her,"

"I don't and it's not her that I care about. It's the fact that my son is living in the same house where people were killed. We have to leave,"

"Malfoy, mate you have nowhere else to live then here. You can't move out," Blaise stood by Draco, but staying about arms length away, he tended to lash out when he was angry.

"Blaise, there is a fricking blood stain on the floor over there," he pointed to the place under the gothic Chandelier, "Her blood stained the floor. That memory stained the floor. This room still feels like dark magic. I don't like it. I can't let him live here,"

"Draco, you have to live here. It's your home,"

"It's not a home Blaise, it's just a tainted house. Tainted with dark magic. I tell myself that I've moved on from all that but how can I when the house I live in is tainted with it?"

"Don't move out Draco. Just redecorate, hire someone to do it,"

"Why don't you want me to sell this place?"

"After the war you let me live here even when you married Astoria and had Scorpius. This is as much of my home as it is yours now," he patted Malfoy on the shoulder, "I only moved out cos Luna asked me to move in with her,"

Draco laughed, "I thought it was Scorpy annoying you,"

"Nah, the kids a laugh. Smart for his age too,"

"Yeah, but Blaise, who the hell in their right mind is going to redecorate this Manor. It's massive and I'm not getting a muggle to do it,"

"Get Granger to do it,"

"Granger?" Draco scoffed, "She isn't ever going to come back here,"

"No, but she will know that it has changed enough so it doesn't remind her of all the bad times. And she can baby sit Scorpius for you. Two birds, one stone,"

"I get your idea but do you really think that she will ever want to be near me again, I was awful to her in School and I probably will still be awful to her now. I don't think that's going to work Blaise,"

"Stop moaning, just try it. What's the worst that can happen? She says no and breaks your nose again?"

"I guess so," Draco nodded, "But don't expect me to be nice to her. I'm already paying for her to do it,"

"You might have to be nice to her, if you want her to do it Dray,"

Draco groaned, "I hate you Blaise,"

"I hate you too,"

"Blaise, please don't cheat on me with Draco. Or I won't be happy,"

The two boys looked round and saw Luna stood with her arms folded glaring at them, before her face broke out into a small smile, "I have Hermione in my shop crying. Malfoy you better talk to her now. Blaise look after Scorpy while he's gone. He won't be long," she smiled sweetly at her boyfriend, who winked at her before disappearing through the main doors.

"Malfoy," she grabbed his arm and turned on the spot, taking him into the back of her shop.


	3. Fight

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**Please keep reading and reviewing, if you can that would be awesome. I have also been told that some of my grammar isn't great so I'll try and work on that, but I'm not in school right now and most of that knowledge has just flown out of my brain (Ooops) but anyway, thanks for that feed back and hope you enjoy chapter 3.**

**XOXO TheGoldenGirlintheSilverCrown**

**Chapter 3-**

Luna turned to face Malfoy and looked him dead in the eye, her face looked determined, but her voice disagreed, "If you dare make her cry even more the she is now, you will pay Malfoy. You may not think that I will do anything to you, but I'm sure Ron, Harry or even Ginny might just be up to the challenge," she leaned in and put her lips so close to his ear that he could feel her moist breath against it, "I hear she can do a killer Bat-Bogey Hex," it wasn't a threat, but it sure felt like one.

Malfoy nodded, "Okay Luna," he nodded and gulped. Even during the war he had never seen this side of Luna, she had always seemed so soft and gooey, inside and out.

He pushed the door that led into the store room open and was confronted by a slim brunette with wild curly hair. He face was buried in her hands and she was sobbing silently, "Granger?" he asked nervously.

She looked up, and he was confronted by a beautiful set of hazel eyes that looked hurt and sad, "What the hell are you doing here Malfoy!?" she stood up and pulled out her wand, pushing it up under his chin, "Get out before I hex you!"

When he made no attempt to move she began to say an incantation, only to be stopped by his sudden shouts, "Stop it Granger! I don't want to fight! I just want to talk to you!"

She stepped back, a look of surprise appeared on her face only to be instantly taken over by anger again, "What could you of all people possibly want to say to me?"

Malfoy took a deep breath and began to talk, "I wanted to say thank you for looking after my son. I had no idea where he had gone and I was worried sick about him," he paused and looked at her face. The anger had gone, the only emotion that seemed to be displayed now was hurt and sadness, "And I'm sorry about what you had to go through to take him home. I am in you debt," he dropped his gaze to the floor, hating that he was now in debt to the know-it-all muggle-born he despised so much. He didn't care about blood status now; he just hated her annoying attitude and the fact that she wore a very obvious heart on her sleeve.

"Thank you, for saying thank you," she said softly, "It's not your fault about how I reacted, it's mine. I didn't think that the memories would have been quite so vivid before I got there,"

"I also wanted to ask you something. I realised when Scorpius told me that you had run away from my house that I didn't want my kid growing up in a place like that. Somewhere where people have nightmares about and where people were killed. I know it's a bit late for that now since he's eight already, but I was hoping that you would help me redecorate to make it more like a home and less like... well less like what it used to be,"

"Let me get this right, you want me? Hermione Granger, who you bullied all through Hogwarts just because I was muggle-born, who you despised more than anyone else in that school, except maybe Harry—"

"No I hated you more then—" he stopped her.

"You're not helping here," she replied holding up and finger in the air in front of her.

"Sorry,"

"You want me to redecorate you house?"

"Yes," he said bluntly.

"Why me?"

"You have bad memories there. Probably the worst and if you don't feel scared there anymore, then nobody else should either," he looked at her face again, but she was putting on a pokerface so he couldn't read her emotions.

"Okay, but what about my job?"

"You can take as much time as you want to decorate, so you will still have all the time for your job and I'll pay you,"

"You won't need to pay me. I don't want anything from you, but I will do it. It will stop me from getting bored,"

"Thank you," he sighed in relief, thanking her more for not hexing him than for anything else.

"I'll come and see you on Sunday morning," she pulled her wand from her pocket and just before the turned she said quickly, "I should also tell you that your son called me a mudblood,"

He watched in disbelief as Granger disappeared from the room, _Mudblood, _that word would haunt him for the rest of his life. His father had influence him so badly that he didn't even know what he was saying most of the time. Only now that his father was long gone, did he realise the mistakes he had made.

_His son_. His only child who he had tried to raise away from all the hate and pain he had had to go through as a child had called someone a mudblood.

He turned to find Luna looked at him, "Did it go well?" she asked.

"He called her a mudblood," he whispered running his hands through his hair a few times, "He called her a fricking mudblood," he fell to his knees and looked up at Luna, who had worry etched across her pale face.

"I bet he didn't know what it meant Draco. He probably didn't know it was a bad word," she assured him, also proving she had been listening at the door. "Go home Draco. Get some sleep or relax or something. Just breathe and ask him about it tomorrow. It'll just be an innocent mistake. I know your son, and he's as sweet a child can get,"

He nodded at her in a daze, before appearing right in his bedroom collapsing on his bed. He was tired, even if he had only slept a few hours ago. He needed this and he fell into another dreamless sleep.

* * *

Hermione arrived home to the sound of her owl, Magdalena squawking on her perch by the open living room window. A scroll was tied to her ankle with thin red ribbon curled at the ends.

Hermione reached over and pulled on one end of one of the strands, she unrolled the scroll and began to read to loopy scripture written upon it in.

_Hermione,_

_You are hereby invited to the wedding of Ronald Weasley and Katie Bell that will take place on December 2__nd__ at the Burrow._

_Arrive for 4 o'clock; the ceremony will start at 4-30._

_Owl us if you plan to bring a PlusOne._

_Hope you can be there._

And written underneath in Ron's untidy handwriting was

_S'up Mione!_

_So what do you think of my invitation? Do you like it? I just wanted to add a bit on the bottom saying that you will be staying over a couple of nights before, (I'm not asking you, I'm telling you,) so come over at anytime on November 21__st__ and bring your PlusOne (if you have one) along with you too._

_See you soon! Love you!_

_From Ron_

Hermione smiled at Ron's message, it was a nice distraction from the hurt she had just felt. But still, Malfoy's request was an odd one and she wondered why he didn't just hire someone from Wizards Decorations to do it for him and he wasn't expecting her to decorate the whole manor? _Including his room?_

Hermione kicked herself for thinking such a childish thought, and for such a crude one. Malfoy was a selfish, vindictive, prejudice who had taken away her happiness and she shouldn't ever think of him in _that _way.

She pushed all thought of Malfoy from her mind and replaced it with thinking about Ron and Katie's wedding.

She had always thought that Ron would fall in love with her after their kiss in the Chamber of Secrets and so did everyone else. It never worked out though and Ron ended up falling in love with Katie Bell after he had kissed her at the end of one of their Chudley Cannons matches. Ron was keeper and Katie was one of the three chasers. They fell for each other straight away and it wasn't just lust or want, it was desire, need and most importantly, love. You could see it in their eyes.

Hermione felt sad all of a sudden about the upcoming wedding though. She realised that she didn't have a PlusOne to take to the wedding. She had never even been close to being in love and she hadn't given herself up to anyone yet. She was still as pure as she was when she was in Hogwarts.

Harry and Ginny were married with a baby on the way. Ron was engaged. Even Luna was in love (although she wouldn't tell anyone with who she was in love with). And she wasn't, and it killed her.

She sighed and turned back to Magdalena who was looking at her expectantly. Hermione put her hand into her jacket pocket and fished out a couple of owl treats and fed them to her.

Her mind drifted to that night she had made her wish; maybe it wasn't the right night. Maybe she wasn't pure enough. Or maybe it was just a legend, like most of the things she read.

She sighed again, knowing that wishing something wouldn't make it happen; she had to make it happen.

* * *

"Ginny!" Harry yelled up the stairs, "Luna's here!" He looked across at the blonde who was slowly spinning in a circle looking round the Kitchen, twirling a lock of hair round her finger, "She says it's urgent!"

"Shut up Harry! If being pregnant with your bloody bastard child wasn't enough, you making me run up and down stairs is the final straw!" a heavily pregnant Ginny appeared at the bottom of the stairs puffing like she had just run a marathon. "Hi Luna!" she beamed at her blonde friend.

"Have you spoken to Hermione recently?" she asked dreamily.

"No, not since last week, why?"

"Oh. I just thought I'd tell you that she's planning on redecorating the Malfoy Manor over the next few months,"

"What?" Harry and Ginny gaped simultaneously.

"Yes, his son made her cry and then he asked her to redecorate. I wasn't supposed to be listening. It was all very vague really,"

"Malfoy has a son?" Harry asked.

"Yes, he's eight,"

"Draco fricking Malfoy has a bloody eight year old son!?" Ginny squealed.

"Ginny! Language! You better not swear like that when our son comes along!"

"Shut it Harry, it's my hormones," she glared at him, "And you don't even know if it's a boy yet. Anyway who cares about that right now, Luna why is Hermione redecorating Malfoy Manor? How can she even go back there?"

Luna shrugged dismissively, "I told you I wasn't supposed to be listening. Anyway, I better be off. I have a date,"

"Oooohhh, with who?"

Luna shook her head put a finger to her lips and the wiggled her fingers goodbye before disappearing from the room.

* * *

Hermione woke bright and early on Sunday morning, she knew what was coming up and she wanted to be prepared. Not only would she have to talk to _him, _but she would also have to go _there. _So all in all, not the best day for Hermione Granger.

She showered, dressed and did her make-up in time for eleven and then disapperated to Malfoy Manor.

She was greeted by Scorpius who was sprawled across one of the big couches, he jumped up when he saw her, "Hermione!" he raced over and hugged her round her middle, "I knew you would come back!"

She patted his head awkwardly, "You alright now Scorpius?" he nodded, "Can you show take me to your dad please?" she focused on the boy in front of her, trying to block out the memories. Which wasn't that hard, as she was so surprised by Scorpius reaction to seeing her, that it wiped all thoughts of it out of her head.

He nodded again, "He's in the kitchen. Follow me,"

Hermione followed the boy down a series of long dark corridors until she was led into a brightly lit room. The kitchen looked very homely, compared to the rest of the manor. The countertops were a white marble, placed over Beachwood draws and cupboards.

Malfoy was stood over the hob with a frying pan in his hand and a spatula in the other. Blaise was watching with a confused look on his face.

"Malfoy," Hermione walked over to him and looking into the frying pan, "You know you don't use a spatula for eggs right?" she looked across at Blaise, "Huh, I thought you were dead,"

"Well what are you suppose to use Granger?" he looked at her with a smirk on his face.

"Don't push it Malfoy," she looked around the kitchen and spotted the correct utensil and the little devil on her shoulder whispered in her ear, so she threw it had his head, "Use that one,"

It struck the back of his blonde head and he let out an annoyed grunt, and Hermione stifled a giggle, "Merlin Granger! What the hell was that for!?"

"No reason," she looked at Blaise, "Nice to know you're not dead. You were better than most," She held her hand out, "Nice to see you again,"

He shook her hand, "You too Hermione,"

"So what are you trying to do exactly?" she looked around at the messy kitchen, which was cluttered with egg boxes and other such rubbish.

"What does it matter to you Granger?"

"Shut up Malfoy!" she looked at him with malice in her eyes, "I wasn't asking you,"

"He's trying to teach me how to make bacon and eggs, the muggle way,"

She looked at the dark skinned man in front of her and pulled a face, "Why? I thought all you Purebloods were too good for 'the muggle way'"

"I'm proposing to Luna and I want to do something that she won't expect," he paused a few seconds and then slapped his hand to his mouth, the movement so quick and violent that it made the other two adults and the child in the room jump, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT! I was not supposed to say that. Oh crap she is going to kill me!"

Hermione shrieked and pulled Blaise into a hug, it was so forceful she almost knocked him over, which would have lead them to both being sprawled on the floor, "Thank god it's you!" she said as she regained some composure and pulled away, "She wouldn't tell us who it was and we thought it would be someone awful. Like him," looking across at Malfoy with a distasteful look on her face.

"That is it Granger!" he stormed over to her and pulled out his wand, "Blaise get the kid out of this room now," he shoved his wand under Hermione throat, pushing it against the squidgy spot just below her chin.

"You wouldn't dare Malfoy. You haven't got the guts," she taunted him, even though her mind was screaming at her not too. This wasn't her, _oh but it was, it was her now, _her two subconsciouses were fighting against each other. In the end the devil on her shoulder cast away the angel with one flick of his pitchfork and her voice filled with hatred and malice "You're a coward Malfoy, just like your good for nothing father and I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up. Just. Like. Him,"

Malfoy screamed in her face and pressed the wand harder into her throat, "I am nothing like him! NOTHING!" it was more than anger in his voice now, this was pure hatred for her, he took a deep breath and calmed enough to keep his voice in control, "I am nothing like my father. He was the coward and he forced me to be like that,"

"He didn't force you to do anything Malfoy! You chose to be a bastard to be before you even knew me. All that mattered to you is that I was a filthy mudblood," she spat out, "You didn't even think about how you would have affected me and even more so how it affected you. All you cared about was getting daddy's approval. So are you happy now Malfoy? I'm sure he would be very proud of you right now. Threatening to kill a blood traitor, a son that called me a mudblood. He taught you well Malfoy, and you taught you son well,"


	4. Punch

**So I left it at a little bit of a cliffy (not really, I'm bad at writing) at the end of that last chapter, sorry 'bout that ( heheheh, did anyone else read that in Hagrid's voice?) Anyway, I hope you are enjoying the story! So please read/review/follow/favourite or do anything else you want. JUST ENJOY!**

**(Also, I know that bacon and eggs aren't that hard to make. But just for the story can we pretend they are, because it's a typically breakfast type and food and I need that for the story (Toast seemed to boring), so thank you!)**

**XOXO TheGoldenGirlintheSilverCrown**

**Chapter 4-**

"You haven't changed a bit Malfoy, despite what people have told me," he had backed her against the wall now, his wand still pressed under her chin.

"How do you know I haven't changed Granger? We haven't seen each other in eight years. Everyone has changed, some for the better, some for the worse. I think you've changed for the worse Granger. You used to be so accepting of people. If I don't forget you were the one that still didn't believe that I was a Death Eater. You still had faith in me even when no one else did Granger. Even the Death Eaters didn't think I could do it, and the Order thought I would. Well news flash Granger! I didn't kill him and you were the one who knew I wouldn't,"

He pulled the wand from her throat and looked into her eyes, she was scared and choking back tears.

"I had to change Granger. I had to look after my son. I needed money, and I didn't want to break into my family fortune, that's for him. I sent him to Muggle School so I wouldn't have to hire a nanny for him. Luckily Astoria was still around for the beginning so I didn't have to deal with him as a baby. Muggle School Granger! That was – is – the hardest thing for me to do. A right kick in my pride. I had to change, but you didn't."

He stepped back from her, "So don't you dare say anything against me because you haven't earned the right," he turned around she he wouldn't have to look at her, "You were right to have faith in me in the beginning, and to be honest it was the only thing that stopped me. That someone believed that it wasn't me, that my dad was controlling me. And even though I hated you, it counted for something,"

"I'm so sorry— " she walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, lightly.

He whirled round his wand held in front of him, clenched in a tight fist, "Don't touch –" he stopped talking when his fist came into contact with the side of her head and she fell to the floor.

* * *

"What's going on in there?" Scorpius asked, hugging his knees to his chest as he sat at the head of his bed.

Blaise was sat at the opposite end of the bed, he could faintly hear the shouting coming from the kitchen, but all of a sudden it had gone quiet, "I don't know, Scorp,"

"Why did they ask us to leave?"

"They have always fought, with words and wands. They weren't friends, I'm guessing they didn't want you to see them arguing," _or duelling _he added in his head.

"Why weren't they friendly?"

"It was just inter-house competition. They were each other's match, though she always won and he didn't like that," it wasn't all of the truth, but it's all he was getting.

"I like Hermione. She would make a good mum, she likes marshmallows on hot chocolate,"

Blaise laughed, "It takes more than that to be a good mother Scorpius. You'll understand one day,"

"Are you marrying Luna because she would make a good mum?"

"I haven't proposed yet, but hopefully I will marry her and I will marry her because I love her,"

"Is Hermione married?"

"You're not trying to set her up with your dad are you?" Blaise laughed fondly again at the young boys idea's and questions, "He won't like that, he doesn't like Granger,"

"Why not?"

"I told you already Scorp, they have a bad past,"

"I think he loves her," this boy really did have weird thoughts.

"Why would you say that?"

"I don't know. You can't explain love," he stood up and walked out of the room.

"Don't go back to the kitchen Scorp!" Blaise shouted after him.

"I won't!" he shouted back.

* * *

"Hermione! Hermione! Merlin Hermione get up now, NOW!" he shook her shoulders.

He sat back on kneel by her body, it hadn't moved an inch. He pressed his head to her chest, turning his face to look at hers. There was a heartbeat, thank Merlin. He held a hand just above her mouth and nose, but he couldn't feel any breathe.

"Merlin dammit, I can't believe I have to do this," he took a deep breath, picked her nose, tilted her head back and pressed his mouth to hers, slowly blowing into her mouth.

Her lips were warm and soft, and he wouldn't admit it to anyone but the felt nice against his. They fitted perfectly, like they were made for each other.

He pulled back and took another deep breath, blowing into her mouth again. She began to stir, she he repeated it again and she shifted again.

Hermione's lips puckered under Malfoy's mouth, and all of sudden he was kissing her. His whole brain was screaming at him, telling him to stop but it felt right and he didn't want to stop, he never wanted to stop, but it was disgusting him. He stopped anyway, he hated this girl, he hated Granger.

He pulled away, "Get off me Granger," he made a whole show of wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"You hit me," she whispered.

"It was an accident, I didn't mean too," it was the truth.

"You called me Hermione,"

He studied her face, she looked calm, not at all like she had just been punched and knocked out. She still look as pretty as she did before.

"Thank you, for helping me. And I'm sorry, for what I said. You have changed and I see that now," she breathed.

"Whatever. I didn't want your death on my hands, I didn't do it for you, I didn't it for me okay? Don't read into it," he looked at her lying on the floor, still breathing heavily, before storming from the room.

He passed his son along the passage to the Library, "You can go back now,"

Scorpius rushed back into the kitchen to find Hermione still lay on the kitchen floor, he stood in the entrance looking at her.

"What happened?" asked Blaise, who quickly arrived after Scorpius.

She leant up and whispered in Blaise's ear, "He accidently hit me, and then he kissed me,"

Blaise shook his head, "Are you alright?" he held out a hand and pulled her up while she nodded her agreement, "Just go home okay, I'll talk with Draco,"

Blaise ran off toward the library, knowing that it was his hideaway for when bad things happened.

"What happened?"

"I was facing away from her and she put her hand on my shoulder so I turned back around to tell her to bugger off and accidently punched her in the head. Then she collapsed,"

"What the hell Draco! You punched her?"

"Yes, and then she kissed me,"

"She said you kissed her too,"

"I didn't, she's lying,"

"Why would she lie about something as petty as that Draco and why were you close enough for her to kiss her?"

"She wasn't breathing so I gave her mouth to mouth. I don't know why she would lie, but she did,"

Blaise knew that he wanted to be left alone, so he left him alone in his library, but not before he spoke again, "You need to pluck up your courage and figure out what you're feeling Malfoy and then act on it,"

* * *

Luna was laid in bed; she opened later on Monday mornings, so she wouldn't have to get up for another hour or so.

Her bedroom door was ever so slightly propped open and she could smell something drifting in from the kitchen. _Is that... Bacon? _She thought to herself, she sniffed again, _yup definitely bacon. _

She dragged herself from her bed and trudged down the stairs, the dark wood cold on her bare feet. She entered the kitchen to see Blaise hunched over the stove, watching the eggs furiously.

"Blaise?" she mumbled through a sleep fuelled haze.

Blaise whirled round and grabbed something from the counter top and hit it behind his back, "Luna, I thought you were still asleep," he looked at her in her pink cotton button down pyjama's with a little unicorn pattern on and her long hair in a frizzy mess, she did still look asleep.

She frowned at him, "What have you behind you back? Let me see!" she began to walk around him, but he turned his body so he was still facing her, "Nawww! Let me see!" she began to giggle as the two of the turned in circles a few more times before she just decided to run up to him and jump, knowing that he would have to move his hand to catch her.

Well it worked. He arms quickly wrapped around her, a small blue box was clutched firmly in his grip.

"Looks like you spoilt my surprise now," Blaise said as he put his girlfriend back onto the floor.

Luna pouted, "I'm sorry," she said, like a small child would say it.

They stood close to each other, but not close enough that they were touching. He brought the box up higher, so she could clearly see it, "I was going to bring this for you with muggle made breakfast in bed, but since your here I'll do it now,"

He opened the box and Luna let out a small gasp. Inside was a simple silver ring, with a small cluster of tiny Sapphires clustered in the centre, the gems being held there by a spiral of thin silver.

"It's beautiful,"

"Not as beautiful as you. Luna Lovegood will you marry me?"

"Of course I will. Yes, yes, yes," she out a hand on the back of his head and kissed him, "I love you too,"

He pulled the ring from it velvet box and slipped it onto her left hand ring finger.

"A perfect fit," she said.

"Just like you and me," he smiled and kissed her again.

She pulled back, and look of worry flashed across Blaise's face, "What's wrong?"

"Can you smell... Burning?" she looked at the stove and laughed out loud, "The eggs are on fire!"

Blaise swore loudly and whirled round pulled out his wand, "Aguamenti," he pointed at the pan and a swoosh of water pour from the tip of his wand, putting out the tiny flames.

"I guess that ruined breakfast," Luna stated, still giggling.

Blaise turned off the stove and the oven containing the bacon, "Not for me," he scooped Luna up in his arms and she giggled some more before he took her upstairs to the bedroom.

* * *

Ginny lay in St Mungo's Hospital clutching a small baby boy in her arms, "Harry," she whispered as she didn't want to wake the child, "Where is everyone. You told them I was having the baby didn't you?"

Harry nodded, "Of course. They'll be on their way Ginny, don't worry. It was such a quick birth, I only told them five minutes ago," he kissed the top of his wife's head and then ran a finger from the top of his son's forehead to the tip of his nose softly, "I told you it was going to be a boy,"

"Harry, what is a Tuesday's child?" she asked, remembering the old rhyme Harry had told her.

"Tuesday's Child is Full of Grace,"

Ginny laughed, "We should send him to the ballet Potter," she said, mimicking the taunting voice that Malfoy had used when saying a similar phrase in his second year.

"No. He'll play Quidditch, just like his mummy and daddy," he kissed Ginny's head again.

It was Luna who arrived first, clutching onto the arm of none other than Blaise Zabini. She ran over to Ginny and began cooing over the baby, and then over Luna's engagement ring.

"Zabini,"

"Potter,"

"So your Luna's secret boyfriend?"

"More than her boyfriend now,"

"Well be good to her,"

"It's a bit late for that Potter, it's been two years,"

"I'm going to get something to drink, want anything?" he turned towards the girls, "Do you want anything to drink?"

"Pumpkin juice, please," Ginny said.

"Anything really," Luna answered.

"I'll come with you," Blaise said to Harry.

"Good, Ron will kick off if he see's you. Better get it over and done with,"

The two men walked from the room and towards the Hospital Cafe, "So when did you and Luna meet?" Harry asked, "Well the second time, after Hogwarts,"

"I went into her shop, we started talking and it all took off from there,"

"I'm glad it's you Blaise. We were worried when she wouldn't tell us who you were. We thought it was someone really awful like Malfoy or someone,"

"You know, that's exactly what Granger said when she found out. It didn't help that she was in the room at the time. They got into a big argument, almost ending in a duel,"

"When did she find out?"

"Sunday, she was coming over to start the redecorating; I'm guessing you already know about that? Anyway they got into the argument and she left,"

"Why is she decorating his house? I mean of all peoples house why his?"

"I don't know, maybe she just doesn't like to turn down offers when people ask her to help them. Even if they are Malfoy,"

Harry looked along the length of the corridor and saw a certain red-headed man walking up, with his soon to be wife running ahead of him, "Here comes trouble," Harry nodded at Ron, and Blaise understood what he meant.

"Congratulations Harry! I'm going to Ginny," Katie paused to talk to Harry for a moment before dashing off down the corridor.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Ron asked as soon as he spied Blaise, looking at him darkly.

"He's come to see my baby boy and to tell us that he's marrying Luna,"

"You're Luna's boyfriend?" Ron looked disgusted.

"Yes," Blaise said tonelessly, "You know Harry I have no idea why people are finding it so surprising that it's me, and I'm her fiancé, not her boyfriend anymore,"

Harry laughed, "Well you're not the first person any of us thought of,"

"No, I can tell,"

"Well at least you're not Malfoy," Ron shrugged and held out his hand, "Welcome to the big, happy and messed up, none related family,"

Blaise shook his hand, "Thank you, we were just getting drinks, care to join us?"

Ron shrugged again, "Don't see why not. Ginny won't miss me, I saw mum and dad and George on my way up here. She should have the space while she can,"

"By the way," Harry said turning to Ron, "You owe me ten galleons. I told you it was going to be a boy,"

Ron grumbles as he pulled the money from his pocket and handed it over.

* * *

**I don't know if fried eggs can burn, but even if they don't let's pretend they do for sake of the story. Thank you :D**


	5. James

**Thank you again for everything :D I'm really sorry for such a slow update and I'm planning on writing quicker in the future.**

**Also, I'm starting a Harry Potter and The Mortal Instruments cross over(but have no idea what to call it, so message me some ideas please!) , so the first chapter for that is going up soon and I'm doing my first one-shot as well called Shiver Shiver. So wish me look and hope it goes all well.**

**Please Read and Review and Follow and Favourite and everything else**

**XOXO TheGoldenGirlintheSilverCrown**

**Chapter 5-**

Hermione had gotten a Patronus from Harry around midday, telling her to come to the hospital immediately as Ginny was giving birth and she her house left straight away to get their as quickly as possible.

She appeared right in the Hospital Cafe, knowing that was the most likely place that Harry – and Ron as well – would be. She looked round and quickly spotted Harry's messy hair almost straight away, he was accompanied by Ron and... Blaise? She guessed he and Luna were out in the open now.

"Harry!" she went straight over to him and pulled him into a hug, "How's Ginny? Is she okay?"

"Yes she's fine, it was a really quick birth. He was out in under an hour,"

"It's a boy!?" Hermione's voice was slowly but surely going higher in pitch as she got more excited.

She jumped up and clapped her hands, in a very un-Hermione like manor.

"Hermione what happened to your face?" Ron asked looking at her oddly.

"What do you mean?" she raised her hand to touch the side of her face.

"Other side," Ron gestured toward the right side of her face. She raised her fingers and pressed on her temple gently.

She inhaled sharply through her teeth in pain, pulling her fingers back quickly, as dull beating of pain rushed to where her finger had met her skin, "What is it?"

"You have a massive bruise Hermione. How'd you get it?"

"I tripped and hit my head on the table. I'm fine though, I just didn't know it had bruised,"

"Huh," said Harry, obviously not believing the story, "You should get it looked at,"

Hermione shook her head, "No. I'll be fine Harry. Now which room is Ginny in?"

"Five-hundred and four. It's down there and turn left," he pointed towards the correct corridor and watch Hermione amble away.

"That does not look like she tripped. It looked like she's been punched," Ron turned to Harry and Blaise as soon as Hermione had walked out of earshot.

"Well why would anyone want to punch her?" Blaise asked, playing along with what Ron was saying.

"She has printed some pretty harsh articles in the Daily Prophet about people, maybe one of them attacked her on the street," Harry commented.

Ron laughed, "Anyone who would dare attack Hermione would be in a lot worse state then she is right now. They'd be bleeding from every hole in their body,"

"Well maybe she lied because she didn't want to have to talk about it. Maybe we should just leave it,"

Harry and Ron looked at Blaise, their eyes narrowed, "What do you know Blaise?" Ron asked.

"As much as you. I swear," he lied through his teeth, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Fine," Harry said, "Let's go to the room now,"

* * *

Just getting into room Five-hundred and four was a squeeze. The room was crammed with almost every living member of the massive Weasley family, who were all leaning around the small bed craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the tiny baby boy asleep in Ginny's arms.

Molly was sat on the chair next to the bed, and Hermione, Luna and Katie were perched along the sides of the bed.

Harry pushed his way through the red hair maze to his wife's bedside, ignoring all the murmurs of the male Weasley members saying that the child should be named after them.

"What are we going to call him Harry?" Ginny whispered into her husband's ear.

"I was thinking James after my dad, and Arthur after yours. James Arthur Weasley— Potter?"

"It's perfect," she kissed his cheek and then speaking in a slightly hushed tone, but still loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, "Shh, you'll wake him and we've decided to call him James Arthur, after Harry's dad and my dad," she beamed at her father who was stood with his hand on Molly's shoulder, she had tears in her eyes.

"He's beautiful," Molly choked out, "May I hold him?" stifling a sob.

Molly shuffled over to the bed as her only daughter held out her first grandchild.

"Harry, can you get everyone except my close family and our friends out please. I can't breathe, there is no space,"

"Of course," Harry stood up, "Right it's getting a bit crowed in here so Ginny has told me to order anyone who isn't Molly, Arthur or her brothers or close friends out," All the Weasley's stared at him blankly, as though he had just spoken a foreign language to them. Only Blaise was heading towards the door, "No Blaise. You can stay. Everyone else out. Now,"

After another brief pause the large Weasley family began to filter out of the small room via the small door and apparition.

The noise, dropped considerably and Ginny let out a long sigh, "Thank God. I can't stand half of those people, and the other half I want to curse," she giggled.

Everyone just nodded in agreement, except Molly who was still too busy cooing over James to even notice that almost everyone had left.

Luna held up a bag, "Me and Blaise have something for you," she passed the bag over to Ginny, who quickly dipped her hand inside and pulled out a mobile.

"Oh Merlin Luna! This is beautiful," she held it up in front of her and began to study what was hanging off each thin length of white ribbon. Each one had a tiny photo frame attached to it. In each frame was moving picture of one the people that were in the room.

The couples were next to each other, with Luna and Blaise looking at each other adoringly from their pictures and Ginny and Harry with triumphant and proud looks on their faces as they looked down into the frame below them which was empty at the moment, but would soon be filled by an image of James.

But what pulled Ginny's heartstrings the most was that she had included pictures of both her parents and Harry's parents, who were all laughing and conversing with each other. And that Luna had put an image of all her brothers, including Fred who was in the frame right next to George and pulling face at his twin.

"I charmed it to match the emotion of what the person is actually feeling at the time, except James, Lily and Fred, they will be happy all the time,"

Everyone fell into a calm silence looking at the mobile in Ginny's hands. Most of the images were pointing at themselves in the hospital room now and nudging each other and laughing together.

The calming silence was broken suddenly by a sharp peck on the only window in the room, Hermione looked over and saw Ron pull open the window and take the small red envelope from the birds black beak. He squinted at the writing on the front and the held it out to Hermione, "It's for you,"

Hermione took the enveloped and pulled it open, not recognising the tidy handwriting written in black ink on the front and ignoring all the puzzled looks from the people around her.

_Granger,_

_I need to talk to you. I understand that I hurt you before and that I hurt you now and I'm sorry. Please come and visit me now, the sooner we talk the sooner we can get on with our own lives and maybe even end up friends. I'm sorry. Again._

_From D. Malfoy._

"I have to go," Hermione said quickly, making sure she had everything with her that she had had when she arrived, which was basically herself.

"Wait! Who's it—" Ginny started, but Hermione had already gone by that point.

* * *

Draco was waiting on the leather sofa when she arrived at the Manor, his nose buried in a black bound book with gold calligraphy on the spine.

"Malfoy," she said.

"Hermione," she bit back and gasp when her name rolled off his tongue, "I'm sorry," he stood from the couch and walked to face her, looking down on at her as he was considerably taller than her, "I just don't like being reminded by old times and I just lashed out onto the nearest thing that just happened to be you,"

"It's not your fault Draco," she said his real name with an effort, but knowing that the simple word of affection could mean a lot in the situation, "I provoked you and I hurt you. You had changed and I was stupid not to see it," she held out her hand willing to shake his but he simply brushed it away and pulled her into a hug. Her small frame fit snugly into his larger one, her head rested against his chest and she could feel his heartbeat faintly beating, "Thank you," she whispered into his chest.

"Thank you for what?"

"For forgiving me,"

"I say the same thing to you Hermione," he pushed her away slightly and gently brushed his lips across her cheek. He then pulled back completely, "You going to start in here then?"

She frowned at him a little and ran the back of her fingers along the place where Draco's lips had touch her cheek, before realising what he was asking at, "I don't see why not," she looked at him, and an idea popped into her head, "Hey why don't you come and look at paint or wall paper with me tomorrow? You should have a say in how your main room is done,"

He shrugged, "Yeah, I'll meet you here at three. That's when I get off work, and Scorpius comes back at half past two so he can look at things for his room as well,"

Hermione smiled at him, "It's a date," she suddenly faltered and paled quickly, "Not an actual date though— just a normal outing, meeting, date, shite, crap, damn, I'm sorry. See you tomorrow," she disapperated before she had more of a chance to turn beetroot red.

She appeared back in Ginny's hospital room, making the people she appeared next to jump.

"Where did you go Hermione?" Ginny asked, before Hermione had even had a chance to retain her balance.

"Nowhere, I just had to pay a quick visit to someone,"

Ginny raised her eyebrows at Hermione and raised the letter in the small red enveloped she had been sent clutched in her grip, "Prepared to explain?"

* * *

Hermione arrived back at her house after a very long day. After she had explained everything that had occurred between her and Draco (excluding the punching bit (she stuck to her story of a trip), saying that they just had a bit of a misunderstanding and that was why he wanted to apologise) and the whole of the Weasley and Potter clan told her to stay away from him and stay safe (with Luna and Blaise thankfully staying on her side) she had left for work at the Daily Prophet, writing up her next article without much thought (it was pretty much clockwork for her now, writing it was the easy part) and she had then made a quick visit to the new Wizards Library that had opened in Diagon Ally and hefted her chosen eight books home, it was almost ten o'clock and she was shattered. She practically collapsed on the bed and fell asleep, fully clothed, in an instant. Her life had become a lot more exciting since she had reconnected with her old school 'friend' and it was exhausting her.

She woke the next morning feeling very refreshed, it was the best night's sleep she had had since the storm. It seemed that that night had pin pointed an epic change in her life. Maybe her wish on the Purple moon was working, just not in the way she had imagined.

She peeled off yesterday's clothes and discarded them on the floor by the end of her bed before looking into her wardrobe for something to wear. It had to be muggle clothes as she was planning on taking Malfoy to a muggle store. In some ways she still didn't believe that he had changed that he was just using her to get what he wanted and the rest of her just begged that it just wasn't true.

She ended up wearing a long sleeved plum coloured t-shirt with a pair of blue skinny jeans. She pulled on some shoes and went off to work.

"Looking nice Hermione! I see your wearing your best muggle top, what's the occasion?" teased Amelia Bones, who had gone on to work at the Daily Prophet with her.

"There is no occasion Mi-Mi, I'm going out shopping after work,"

"With who?"

Hermione shot Amelia with a look that could kill, "None of your business,"

"Would it be with a certain single blonde haired sex God who you've been keeping to yourself these last few days?"

Hermione dropped the research papers that were in her hands, "Where did you hear that?" she inquired.

"A certain ex-boyfriend of yours is saying that Mr Sex God has been beating you up," Amelia tapped her pencil against the desk, "Has he?"

Hermione snorted, trust Ron to believe that exact opposite of what she had said to him, "No he has most certainly not been beating me up. He's been a gentleman to me, Ron's probably just jealous,"

"Good, but does Ron has a reason to be jealous?" Amelia looked at Hermione, a wry smile on her lips and she raised her eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"No, why would he?" Hermione answered, almost too quickly. She sat down her desk chair, placing the research by her pot of ink.

"I don't know Hermione. Ask yourself that. Draco Malfoy is a very attractive man and if I were Ron, I'd be jealous of him too. He probably thinks you're shagging like bunnies, and made that stuff up about Malfoy hitting you to try and make himself feel better,"

Hermione just looked at her and shook her head, "I am not dating or shagging or doing anything with Draco Malfoy. We are just friends,"

Amelia smirked and let out a snorting laugh, "That's what they all say!"

Hermione let out a horrified "Mi-Mi!"

"What? I'm just saying—" she feigned innocence.

"Well don't say then," Hermione looked away from Amelia and began to scribble down the bases of her next article.

"Touché," Amelia smirked again, but looked down at her desk and began to work as well.


End file.
